NEW YORK, May 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP announced today that leading "crypto native" lawyers Lewis Rinaudo Cohen, Gregory Strong, and Sarah W. Chen have joined the firm as partners in Cahill's globally recognized Digital Assets and Emerging Technology, or "CahillNXT" practice. The CahillNXT practice will be co-chaired by Cahill partners Samson "Sam" Enzer (who founded Cahill's cryptocurrency and fintech practice in 2021) and Lewis Cohen. The arrival of Mr. Cohen, Mr. Strong and Ms. Chen will include the opening of a Cahill office in Delaware led by Mr. Strong, a former Deputy Attorney General in the Delaware Department of Justice, given the state's strategic importance to clients in the digital assets sector and across Cahill's financial services-focused practices.

For over a century, Cahill has been recognized for innovation and excellence in helping traditional financial institutions resolve their thorniest legal and business challenges. Through its CahillNXT practice, the firm is now at the forefront of guiding the next generation of entrepreneurs and businesses in the burgeoning digital assets sector (sometimes known as "Web3") through the maze of opportunities and risks on the cutting edge of the intersection of digital assets, emerging technology, and finance. The combined practice will provide corporate governance, capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory compliance, and litigation advice, from start-up formation, product structuring, fundraising, licensing, intellectual property, dealmaking and due diligence, to handling clients' internal investigations, regulatory compliance and enforcement matters, and bet-the-company civil and criminal litigation.

Mr. Cohen, Mr. Strong, and Ms. Chen are true crypto natives, having long focused their practice on the adoption and use of blockchain technology and tokenization across a wide range of market-leading projects, along the way handling general corporate matters, venture financing, securities law compliance, and financial regulatory matters. Their clients have included some of the world's leading blockchain development companies, foundations, digital asset gaming platforms, trading firms, digital wallet-service providers, blockchain infrastructure providers, venture capital firms, and traditional financial institutions.

"Lewis is a trailblazer and thought leader, having co-founded one of the very first law firms focusing on clients engaging with the digital asset space. Nearly six years ago, Lewis recognized the potential for this community to create new and groundbreaking commercial and economic models. Lewis and his colleagues built a leading Web3-focused legal brand through a singular focus on the needs of clients working in the blockchain space, while remaining true to the sector's open-source and community-oriented ethos," said Sam Enzer, Co-Chair of the CahillNXT practice. "By joining forces as CahillNXT, our combined team has the capacity to handle the most significant and complex legal and business challenges that the industry faces, from helping our clients structure, develop, and launch projects that involve the use of crypto assets, to defending them in civil and criminal litigation or regulatory enforcement matters."

"In three short years, Cahill's practice in this space has grown from nascent to top-tier," said Herb Washer, Chair of Cahill's Executive Committee. "Last year, we unveiled a long-term plan to further diversify and grow Cahill, focusing on our most successful and profitable practices. With the addition of this remarkable team, our plan is right on schedule, reinforcing Cahill as the premier destination for both traditional financial institutions and emerging companies across the ever-evolving digital assets sector."

"For more than a century, Cahill has been a leader in providing counsel to the financial services industry. Then, in the blink of an eye, Sam and Cahill built a remarkable and industry-leading digital asset practice," said Lewis Cohen, Co-Chair of the CahillNXT practice. "My colleagues and I couldn't be happier to join this team launched by Sam, who successfully led some of the government's earliest, groundbreaking cases in this field as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York."

Prior to joining Cahill in 2021, Mr. Enzer served for eight years as a federal prosecutor for the Department of Justice in the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), where he rose to become a senior member of the SDNY Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force and spearheaded multiple groundbreaking cryptocurrency enforcement matters. He has been described as "one of the leading cryptocurrency enforcement attorneys to come out of government service in recent years" by The National Law Journal and as the "SDNY Crypto Ace" by Law360.

Mr. Cohen, Mr. Strong and Ms. Chen were authors of a first-of-its-kind 2022 study of crypto assets analyzing why secondary market crypto asset transactions are not "securities" subject to the Securities Exchange Commission's enforcement jurisdiction. This seminal 180-page "open source" work, made available for free to market participants, regulators and others in the industry, summarizes all 266 appellate cases to have applied the Supreme Court's "Howey test" since 1946 and guides many industry players as they navigate the application of U.S. securities laws and rules to new, developing asset classes. This three-partner team joining Cahill will be augmented by a highly experienced coder and developer able to help clients bridge the gap between code and law.

Full biographies of the new CahillNXT partners can be found here:

Lewis Rinaudo Cohen
Gregory Strong
Sarah W. Chen

About Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP

Cahill is among the most successful law firms in the world. With a history of legal innovation dating back to the firm's founding in 1919, Cahill is trusted by market-leading financial institutions, companies and their boards to manage significant corporate transactions, litigation and regulatory matters. Based in New York, Cahill also has offices in London and Washington, D.C.

SOURCE Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP